The Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has granted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) permission to proceed with its elective National Convention scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2025.
Justice A. L. Akintola, who delivered the ruling, issued an interim order allowing the convention to hold as planned in Ibadan, and directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to attend and monitor the exercise pending the hearing of a substantive motion.
The decision followed an ex-parte application filed by Folahan Adelabi against the PDP, its Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum; Governor Umaru Fintiri, who chairs the party’s National Convention Organising Committee; and INEC.
Adelabi had sought an order restraining the defendants from halting or disrupting the schedule of activities leading up to the convention.
In his ruling, Justice Akintola held that the claimant had shown sufficient grounds for urgent judicial intervention. “The court finds merit in the claimant’s motion ex-parte. The same succeeds and is hereby ordered as prayed,” he stated.
He further restrained any party from interfering with the PDP’s timetable and ordered the defendants to proceed with preparations for the convention. The case was adjourned to November 10, 2025, for hearing of the substantive motion.
The order, dated November 3, 2025, was issued under the seal of the Oyo State High Court and signed by the Principal Registrar, S. O. Hammed.
Last Friday, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja had restrained the PDP from holding its planned national convention until the party met certain statutory and legal requirements. The judge also ordered INEC not to recognise any outcome from such a convention.
The PDP, however, rejected that judgment, describing it as an assault on democracy. National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said the party’s legal team had been directed to appeal the ruling, insisting preparations for the convention would continue.
Meanwhile, the party’s leadership crisis deepened on Monday as Abdulrahman Mohammed, former PDP Vice Chairman (North Central), resumed at the national headquarters in Abuja as acting national chairman following the suspension of Umar Damagum.
Mohammed’s assumption of office came amid a leadership tussle between two factions of the National Working Committee (NWC), each suspending key members of the opposing side, further intensifying the internal conflict within the opposition party.
